Problem installing rockbox into an iPod Mini 2nd Gen with broken microdrive

[asper]

Hi guys,

I recently got a broken iPod Mini 2nd Gen. The microdrive is gone. THe iPod is totally original, i just substituted the microdrive with a SanDisk Ultra 8GB CF and it is recognized when i connect the iPod to my Windows PC.

When trying to use the ipodpatcher utility it is not able to recognize the iPod connected ("no ipod found, aborting"); i suppose this is dued to the fact that the CF is not formatted/partitioned by iTune.

The rockbox utility automatically recognize the iPod Mini 2nd gen and install rockbox but does not patch bootloader.

I would not like to install iTune... is there a way to force ipodpatcher to patch the unit bootloader ?

EDIT:
I suppose I am inside disk mode when running ipodpatcher because i can see the CF folder content, correct ?

[dconrad]

I don't know much about ipods generally, but maybe this will help: https://www.rockbox.org/wiki/IpodManualRestore.html

[asper]

I don't know much about ipods generally, but maybe this will help: https://www.rockbox.org/wiki/IpodManualRestore.html

Thank you very much ! Just tested but without success. The partitions seems to be correctly flashed but the iPod is not installing the firmware i manually wrote on the new drive (using dd or manually). I will try to find someone with itunes...

EDIT
I installed iTunes for Windows; it recognize the iPod Mini and It seemed to me to have crashed but when i disconnected it after several minutes the update was done and the iPod was running again !